Composite tau rail



\ H. M. LOFTON COMPOSITE T-RAIL Filed May 24 1921 Patented Dec. 25,1923.

UNITED STATES HERBERT M. LOFTON, GHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE.

COMPOSITE T RAIL.

Application filed May 24, 1921. Serial No. 472,086.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, HERBERT M. LorroN a citizen of the United States,and resident of Chattanooga, county of Hamilton, and State of Tennessee,have invented an Improvement in Composite T Rails, of which thefollowing is aspecilication.

My invention has for its object the construction of rails for steam andother railways which shall provide a composite strucf ture comprisingbase and head sections or parts detachably bolted together whereby thehead sections may be replaced when worn; and in which further, the saidhead sections break joints with the joints of the base sections so as,in effect, to provide a substantially continuous rrail not dependentupon fish plates or chairs to insure a union of successively arrangedrail sections.

My object is further, to so firmly support the head sections upon thecontinuous base structure wherever said head portions are to be abutted,vthat there is no possibility for vertical looseness; and the object isalso to provide the abutting joint of thek head sections as an obliquedivision, so that objectionable pounding of the trucks wheels isobviated.

My object is further, to overcome the danger of breaking of the'rail asa whole, a cause of serious accidents in the usual type ofT rails, thisdanger being prevented by the composite construction, wherein anyweakness in one part is taken care of by the strength of the other part.

My object is also to provide a construction of rail which will enablecomplete replacement of the head portions thereof, upon which the mainwear comes, with a minimum disturbance of the road-bed and loss of time.By the use of my improved rail construction, it will only be necessaryto unbolt one head section at a time for replacement, this process beingcarried on progressively and occupying only twoor three minutes persection.

With the above and other' objects in view, the nature of which will be'more fully understood from the description hereinafter, the inventionconsists in the novel construction of composite T rail, as hereinaftermore fully described and defined in the claims.

Referring' to the drawings.: Fig'. l is a. cross section of my improvedcomposite rail taken on line 1 1 of Fig. 3; Fig. 21 is a cross sectionof the same on line 2-7-2' of Fig. 3; Fig. 3 is a side elevation of myimproved rail withl portions removed to show the beginning and ending ofone complete base portion thereof; Fig. 4l is a similar elevation butwith the rail `turned 'around to show the other side; Fig. 5 is a planview of the same; Fig. 6 isa perspective view of f a portion of the baseof the rail; Fig.-7 is a transverse cross section of a modificationofvmy improved composite rail; and Fig. 8 is tion and taken at a positionwhich would correspond to line 8 8 ofFig. 3.

My improved composite rail comprises the base part 1- and kthe headpart` 2 which are bolted together by transverse bolts?) extendingthrough overlapping web kportions of said parts, and moreover, thejointsbetween the successive head portions 2 are staggered or arrangedalternately with the joints between the successivey base portions, aswill be clearly understoood by reference to the joints 1l in the headportion `2 and l2 in the base portion l, (Figs. 3 and 5).

Referring more particularly to the cross section shown in Fig. l, itwill be seen that the base portion lof thek rail comprises foot flangesand a vertical web la very similar to the lower portion of an ordinary Trail section. The web la, however, extends upn ward and at itsy top islaterally flanged at 7a to one side of a`Y vertical line through thecenter of the web and at a lower level Vthe web is shouldered to theothersideof `the center line, as yindicated at 10, which, in thepreferred construction, Koccurs `lengthwise of the rail approximatelyhalf way betweenfthe base andr head of the rail structure. The head 2 ofthe rail is provided' with a downwardly extending web 21 locatedimmediately to one side of a verticalline through.` the head, and to theother side ofthe center line the head is notched or cutaway along itslength, so that it snugly fits the lateral flange 7a of'theweb of thebase part, the plane of the joint 7 between the head and said flangebeing preferably slightly inclined downward and inward'. The downwardextending web 2 of the headportion is just deep enough to snugly reachthe shoulder 10 ofthe base web and rest thereon. This downwardlyextending web 2 is provided with a lon:- gitudinal contacting surface 9at' its upperor head portion for contacting with theu-pper edge of theweb la, whereas the web la, adjacent to the shoulder 10, is providedwith a vertical longitudinal contacting surface 8 which directlyreceives the lower part of the web 2a. This construction provides alongitudinal shallow space between the parts 8 and 9 and transversely ofwhich the bolts 3 extend for clamping the webs of the base and headparts together; and the slight yieldingV capacity, by reason of thisclearance space, permits a slight springing of the metal and morepositive contacting at the parts 8 and 9. It will also be noted that thefacing or bearing stri 9 on the head part occurs where it is esirable togive greater strength to the web, that is, where it extends downwardfrom the head and similarly, the provision of the facing or bearingstrip 8 on the web la gives greater metal adjacent to the shoulderedportion, and this increases its strength at this vit-a1 point. Inpractice, it will suffice for the bolt-s 3 to be spaced approximately16.9 inches apart along the length of the rail, except at the ends wherethe two head portions abut, and at those places adjacent to where thetwo base portions abut, at which two places the spacing may beapproximately six inches apart and nine inches apart respectively. Y

While it is not'necessary to employ splice bars o-r fish-plates foruniting the head portions of the rail end to end, because of the factthat they are so thoroughly united with the web` of the base portionsand the latter constitute all the support adjacent to the joints 1l thatis necessary, nevertheless, as the base portions rest upon the woodenties and are, therefore, subjected to more or less uneven strain, theyhave their abutting ends united by means `of splice bars which areindicated at 4 and 5 in Fig. 2, and also shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Thesplice bars 4 are of relatively short height, so that they terminateadjacent to the shouldered portion l() of the vertical web of the basepart l, whereas theY splice bar 5 is of the full height of the web 1aand abuts under the lateral projecting portion 7 a at the top and restsdirectly upon the foot ange at the bottom, these splice bars 4 and 5being respectively clamped in position at opposite sides of the rail bythe transverse bolts 3a and denitely and positively connect the ibaseportions l oi the composite rail in permanent continuous union, andwhich is maintained even though the head portions be replaced.V As shownin Fig. 2, the bolts 3 are made somewhat longer at they places where thesplice bars 5 come, so that they may extend not only through the twowebs of the rail proper, but also through the splice bar 5, and in thismanner stiften the upper parts of the webs la where they abut, and thusprovide a more firm support for the rail head 2. It

will now be seen that immediately above the joined ends of the baseparts l of the rail sections, the head portions 2 are continuous,whereas, immediately below the abutting ends ll of the head portion 2,the base portion l of the rail is continuous, the joints in the twoinstances coming at diiferent'places along the rail; and because thehead portion is continuous immediately above the junction portion l2 oi'the base sections, very little strain will come upon the rail joints or"the pern'ianent or lower sections. in fact, the strain at this pointwould be so relatively small that the splice bars will keep thepermanent section of the rail in permanent alinement at its jointswithout any additional bridge plates or other accessories. By reason ofthe fact that the joint il of the head sections comes over a solid partof the permanent or base section and that further the joint is cutdiagonally (Fig. 5), the result is that the joint in the renewablesections is supported firmly from below the head and the web and thusprevented from bearing down or giving way at this place, the diagonaljoint permitting the wheels to pass noiselessly and without jar intravelling over the joints. In the case oi' great lengths of railsections, provision is lmade for expansion and contraction where such isnecessary in climates of considerable varying temperatures, and `thismay be accomplished by making the bolt holes slotted or oblong Vin thelower or permanent section, following the ordinary practice in suchmatters.

The general proportion of the head, web and base of my improvedcomposite rail approximates closely to the general cross section of thestandard T rails, (with the exception that the overlapping web portionsgive somewhat greater width at the upper half of the web than iscustomary in the standard rails), and this is desirable, because thefrogs and switches of the roadbed would be constructed of solid rails asis now commonly, done and, therefore, proper splicing connections withthem may very readily be secured by employing splice bars 5 which may beemployed not only on one side, but upon both sides of the rail, as willbe understood by those skilled in the art.

Referring to the construction shown in F'g. 7, it will be seen that itapproximates the construction shown in Fig. l, except that the web 2aMof the head portion is made higher and the shoulder 10 of the webportion la is formed adjacent to the footV flange, so that the two websla and 2a areoi1 approximately the same height and are bolted togetherby the bolts 3 at a point somewhat lower down than in Fig. l.Furthermore, in this construction, l prefer that the cross section ofthe webs shall be somewhat tapered, web la being tapered upwardly andweb 2a tapered downwardly, but in which i railroads in cities.

the horizontal cross section at the bottom is somewhat greater than thecorresponding cross section Aat the top. In this construction, thesplice bars 5 would be used as in the previous case, but it would not benecessary to employ the splice bar 4, as the lower part of lthe flange2"L would answer in lieu thereof.

Referring to Fig. 8, the construction there shown is similar to that ofFigs. 1 and 2, with the exception that the head section 2 of the rail isflanged at one side to provide the ordinary grooved construction, suchas is employed by street and other The vertical height of the rail isalso shown as somewhat greater than that of the standard T rail, inconformity with the general electric raliroad practice in streetrailways. The section which is taken for Fig. 8 being that indicated bythe dotted line 8-8 of Fig. 3,

shows the cross section at the same place' as would correspond to Fig. 1and with the splice bar construction shown at the rear, substantiallycorresponding to what is indicated in Fig. 2.

While I have indicated the joints 11 and 12 as being spaced uniformlyapart, along the length of the railway, it is manifest that it wouldsuffice that the joints 11 were displaced in respect to the joints 12 tothe extent of 3 or 4 feet, so that each section was immediatelyassociated with the abutting portion of the other section. If thispositioning of the joints is carried out, it is then apparent that theintermediate bolts 3 uniting the webs of the sections 1 and 2 might besubstituted by rivets, the overlapping connecting portions of the websadjacent to the splice bars 5 alone being united by bolts 3 and 3,though the use of rivets would not permit the free replacement of thehead portions as conveniently as by the use of bolts.

Aside from the general advantages arising out of the specialconstruction of my improved composite rail, there is another importantadvantage found in the fact that the head or renewable section, being ofmuch lighter Weight than that of a complete rail, permits the same `tobe made of' a higher grade of steel, thus prolonging the life of thesame and adding greater safety on account of the additional strengthsecured thereby. f

It will now be apparent that I have devised a novel and usefulconstruction which embodies the features of advantage enumerated asdesirable, and while I have in the present instance shown and describedthe preferred embodiment thereof which has been found in practice togive satisfactory and reliable results, it is to be understood that I donot restrict myself to the details, as the same are susceptible of modi-Letters Patent, is z- 1. A composite rail structure comprising a basesection having an upwardly extending web provided at its top with alateral ange portion to one side of theweb and at a lower levelyprovided* with a lateral shoulder at the other side of the web,combined with a head section having a downwardly extending web restingupon the shoulder and fitting upon the top of the web and lateralflange-thereof of the base section, the said sections being positionedlongitudinally so that the end of one section projects beyond the end ofthe other section, and transverse yfastening devices extending throughthe flanges of the two sections for *securing them firmly together, andwherein further the abutting base sections are directly united by boltswhich pass through the splice bars and base flange alone whereby thebase sections may be secured together end to end before applying thehead section.

2r. rlhe invention according to claim 1, in which the splice bar on thatside of the base sections to which the web of the head section isapplied extends only part way up between the base and head of the railstructure, and in which further the bolts which extend through the webof the head section adjacent to the splice bars also extend through thesplice bar at the opposite side of the base section, so that at the.abutting junction of each pair of base rail sections, the web of thehead section is directly bolted to the webs of the two abutting basesections by bolts extending through and clamping the splice bar lastmentioned tightly in position.

4 3. A plurality of abutting composite rail structures, each comprisinga base section having oppositely directed foot flanges and an upwardlydirected web provided with a longitudinal lateral shoulder at one sidethereof, and a head section having a downwardly extending web restingupon the shoulder and fitted against the side face of the web of thebase section, and so positioned that the head and base sections overlapeach,

other 4longitudinally considered, transverse fastening devicesext-ending through the flanges of said basefand head sections fordetachably securing them together, a splice barv connected wholly to thewebs of the base sections and bolts extending through the webs of thebase sections and said splice bar and positioned out of contact with thehead sections for uniting the base sections end to end independent ofthe head sections.

4. The invention according to claim 3, wherein the upper ends of thewebs of the base sections are provided with lateral flange portions andthe splice bar which is connected Wholly to the base sections isarranged below the'web of the head section, and in Which the side of thebase section opposite to the splice bar above referred to is providedWith a'second splice bar secured in position upon the base sections bythe first mentioned bolts, said last mentioned splice bar having aheight to extend upwardly greatly above said first mentioned Vsplice barand supporting the top lateral fiange portion of the base sections andlocated in transverse alinement With said first mentioned splice bar andhaving its upper part also arranged in transverse alinement With acontinuous part of the head section, and bolts extending through theWebs of the base and head sections and upper part of the last mentionedsplice bar, said bolts arranged above the lateral shoulder and at alevel higher than the iirst mentioned splice bar. u

A base section for a composite rail having an upright longitudinal Webportion provided at the bottom With opposite :toot iianges and at thetop With a lateral shallow fiange portion Wholly to one side andpresenting a horizontal upper surface, and further having the other sideof the web provided with a longitudinal shoulder at a considerabledistance below the top of the Web portionand sharply projectinglaterally beyond the surface of the Web and forming a longitudinal iiatupper surface, and the web provided with transverse holes spaced apartalong the length' of the base section, part of which are above and partbeloW the laterally projecting shoulder.

In testimony of which invention, I hereunto set my hand.

HERBERT M. LOFTON.

